The Machine in the Garden; Technology and the Pastoral Ideal in America - The Garden Summary & Analysis

Leo Marx

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A truly American pastoral image and ideal began to emerge in the eighteenth century, and it took on decidedly social and political flavors. Historian Robert Beverley set about to commit to writing the history of Virginia from original journals and writings of the early settlers up to his own time (1703). The first settlers, according to Beverley, saw Virginia as a "promised land," unspoiled by civilization, its native inhabitants totally unspoiled by typical European vanities and boundaries of property. In fact, he states, the colony and its surrounding areas were the "'gardens of the world,'" (p. 77). By the end of his work, Beverley is disappointed. He had expected the lush affluent environment and the wonderful traits of the Indians to alter the thought and behavior of English settlers. In fact, it was the opposite. The English came and imposed their civilization upon both the land and the...